


Drowning Lessons

by VENUSRETROGRXDE



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Betrayal, Character Turned Into Vampire, Ex Boyfriend, F/M, Frerard, M/M, Revenge, Searching for Character, Traveling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-27 06:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8390401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VENUSRETROGRXDE/pseuds/VENUSRETROGRXDE
Summary: It was 1996.A chilly November night in the last year of high school.I thought he had loved me.I wonder if he ever thinks of me and how I had wanted to scream after his teeth pierced my neck.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> PS to all: chapter lengths will vary because I'm lazy tbh

The day Frank seemingly left for England was the day he gave me my first goodbye gift. A song he had created and sang with his electric guitar connected to a cheap but good quality amp that fit in his suitcase. I remember his scratchy, low singing voice spewing poetry of death and love, and a line that is still my favorite lyric to date.

  
“As rice grains and roses fall at your feet, we say goodbye the hundredth time. And then tomorrow we’ll do it again…”

  
He went to a lot of different places, but none were as beautiful as England. Alas, I’ve barely seen pictures and listened to Frank drone about the place for hours, but I feel like I’ve already been there. Unlike my former lover, I had never taken a step out of New Jersey then; I couldn’t really afford plane tickets and had a barely nice enough salary to pay my measly rent. But Frank had never paid for his travels. It was his parents who had invested in him going to other countries, feeding him all the money he needed because they were wealthy, unlike myself. They wanted him to get out more and stay away from me. Hell, his parents probably still hate me to this day. But it’s not like they’ll ever see me again.

  
But it was the night of his departure that changed the course of my life. It started at the library on the main street of my hometown Belleville, New Jersey. Technically I was born in Newark, but I moved to Belleville when I was fairly little.

  
For a little background, the Duchess Library was me and Frank’s sanctuary. The place where we shared our most important memories together. It’s where we said ‘I love you’ for the first time, had our first date, commenced our first kiss. It was also the place we went to together before Frank traveled.

  
That last night in the library, I had commanded Frank with a bright smile and blushing cheeks to sing my song over and over again. We walked hand and hand into the premises without a care; the large building had one guard who loved her beauty sleep at the worst of times. They never shut off their lights anywhere but the first floor and left all doors unlocked, so anyone could navigate their way around. Not that anyone would steal from a library. When me and Frank entered, it was as if we were welcomed home with a comfortable silence, our feet making small noises in the hours just after midnight.

  
I always cringe at the bittersweet memories of Frank leading me through those doors at 1:30 am, the early morning just beginning. His eyes had been shining with something new as he sung the lyrics of my song into my ear in a low tone.

  
“Without a sound I took her down, and dressed in red and blue I squeezed. Imaginary wedding gown that you can’t wear in front of me…”

  
I softly hummed alongside him, my hand held in his just as delicately.

  
“My love,” I had whispered, even though the guard was nowhere to be found, “What is the song called again?”

  
“Drowning Lessons,” Frank immediately answered, smiling slightly, “Mi amor.”

  
I purred as his Italian roots poured from his words, wrapping an arm around his waist and kissing his shoulder softly.

  
“Promise me you won’t find another man in England?” I had said without a second thought like always, my pale fingers ghosting over the colorfully inked skin on his arm.

  
“I promise… I always promise. Now and forever Gee.” He paused and leaned his nose onto my cheek, “I love you.”

  
“I love you too…” I had responded. Frank always knew what to say. He had known, since our first date, that I had anxiety about that kind of stuff… About a lot of stuff, actually. Whether or not I still have it now I won’t say.

  
Frank brought me to our floor; the top floor with the glass encased roof that showcased the streets of my home. The roads around the building were dimly lit with streetlights of a yellow glow. Sometimes I would imagine myself atop the Eiffel Tower, looking down on the golden city that lit up like a fire in the night. But my city duly glowed while the moon shown, drug dealers and people of crime doing their silent work while the innocent slept in their beds. My home was not an area of guaranteed safety.

  
Pulling me past a tall bookshelf of adult sci-fi novels, Frank approached the large couches against the wall, sitting us both down as the wind outside howled softly. We exchanged small talk in our usual manner, but before long, our voices had died like a bloomed flower in the winter snow.

  
He had kissed me softly at first, as if words unspoken hung in the air like a poisonous trap. This wasn’t what usually happened.

Our exchanges were always passionate and joyful. This one was unsure; almost completely hesitant. I pulled away, opening my eyes to see Frank’s had been open. My eyebrows furrowed.

  
“What’s wrong?”

  
Those were the last words I had spoken as a human. The last words I had ever muttered alive… Frank only shook his head in reply, and though I wanted to, I didn't question any further. I really should have. Maybe then I wouldn’t be what I am now. Just maybe.

  
He had continued to kiss me, somewhat normally except for a newfound sense of hunger. I began to smile. Maybe he feels better, I had thought. Oh what a fool I had been that night, trespassing into a library with someone I thought I knew. It wasn’t long before Frank was peppering kisses down my jawline, causing me to stifle a giggle as my hands wrapped around his sides like I had all the time in the world. But my time had been running like sand in an hourglass since I first laid eyes on Frank.

  
He continued to kiss me hungrily wherever he could, gripping my arms hard enough to leave a bruise. He growled in his throat with a low vibration, sending shivers through my flesh. This had been so new. It wasn't the passion and love I knew; this was pure, utter hunger. Like an animal’s.

  
But I hadn't been scared then. I was anything but, excitement in my veins and my hands on his sides. His lips moved to my neck and it was all over.

  
Frank bit me.

  
Hard enough that when my eyes snapped open, I almost literally saw stars, spots clouding my vision like an ancient movie in blurs of bright colors. Tears emerged up and fell down my face like my chest, my breathing fast as the air in my lungs swam around and left my gasping mouth.

I had been in immediate agony, but the only sounds I emitted were my sharp breaths. Words, even screams, failed to leave me. Where his teeth weren't, his hands were, gripping the flesh on my neck tightly. Immediately, I knew, as he growled into my skin and blood.

  
Frank had fangs.

  
The second his tattooed hands had tried to adjust on my flesh, I shoved him roughly, tearing him away from my body the worst way possible. His fangs hadn't emerged from my skin completely… And so, as Frank moved away against his will, his fangs were dragged across my throat, hacking the pale flesh open in a single stroke of two hideously sharp canines. I had choked for air, blood pouring out of me like a fountain from the corners of my mouth and where Frank had bit me.

  
I had been on fire. Everything had been on fire. Agony had consumed my whole body like the water and blood that dwelled inside.

  
I had been able to hear Frank's voice. Just faintly; the ringing in my ears dominant. I never knew what he had said as I gripped my red stained throat.

  
Before I had been able to even think, my hand was across his face with all the force I could muster. Apart of myself shot more fear through me. He could've attacked me a second time. But instead, I heard a choking sound come from in front of me.

  
Frank had started to cry.

  
He did not deserve to cry.

  
I wanted to speak so badly. The things I would've put my effort into talking past the blood. But a scream from the main staircase had alerted us both. The guard had awoken. But she never saw me or my former lover that night.

  
Frank had already disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of a prologue. Also stop reading this Audrey


	2. Chapter 2

I hopped off the train lightly, my hands on my backpack straps. Brushing my raven colored dyed hair behind my ear, cringing at the greasy feeling (a byproduct of miscare), my eyes scanned the area.

Everyone here was in a hurry, dressed in important looking business clothes and a flip phone pressed against their ears. I shivered in the chilly air and the slight embarrassment being here caused; I must've looked like a homeless person with my baggy dark gray hoodie and equally baggy beige shorts that stopped just at my knees. Even my sneakers were worn, and I cringed a second time in a single minute.

  
My head casted to the floor, I walked out of the premises, hoping the hotels nearby weren't expensive. My card had been declined the last time I had gone grocery shopping… My fault really; I had quit my job that week. I knew immediately how bad it was that the only money I had left were my college funds my parents had given me, but it wasn't like I would ever attend.  
People with fangs, even retractable ones, and another top priority don't have time for tests, or work, or deadlines, or all of college in general. I had barely graduated high school without going mad. I never even went to Prom because I had planned the entire thing with someone and… Well let's just say I lost my prom date when they decided to assault me. My stomach still aches at the thought. If that's a possible thing anymore. If you're catch my ongoing drift, then I'll let you know I don't burn in the sun under any circumstances. If you aren't, then let me introduce myself fully.

  
My name is Gerard Way.

Unimportant middle name Arthur, if you want to know. I am currently age twenty one, but I still look nineteen. Always will. I was born on the seventh of April in 1977, and died on the twenty first of November in 1996.

  
I had a brother when I was younger, but he died of a flu virus before I could even talk to him. His name was Michael. My parents called him Mikey. They used to call me Gee, until they had kicked me out of the house after finding out I was in a relationship with a man. I had a crappy home and a crappy job at a diner before graduating high school (and before I quit the awful job). That brings me to my current situation.

  
I'm searching for my… Ex-lover, if you will. We had never liked the term ‘partners’ or ‘boyfriends’... And we were both very picky two teens in love. Additionally to all of this, I am not a human anymore.

  
I am a vampire.

  
And it's all Frank Iero's fault.

  
Not only did my ex go and singlehandedly turn me into a monster, but gave me a glorious scar to go with it. Two amazing zigzagging scars across my neck; small mountain shaped lumpy lines… There to happily remind and haunt me on how he assaulted me in the night.

  
I subconsciously cover my neck with a free hand as I pass a young girl and her mother. Pulling my hoodie over would make me look like… Well, just a violent homeless guy, if I'm being honest. My face is too baby-like to ever be put on the body of a thug of some sort.

  
The girl pointed at my neck regardless, and I cringed knowing the mark was big enough to the point where both my hands can't cover it's ugliness. I stood for at least two minutes waiting for the mother to stop apologizing.

  
Why must other people feel sorry for my disgusting appearance? Why must they feel for me regardless of whether or not they know me? It's a waste of emotions and a waste of my time. It's not their fault. And it's not even mine.

  
It's all Frank's. With his stupid smile, his sickeningly adorable laugh, his lips that knew my skin more than I did, his eyes that almost matched my own with their golden green hue. If they were even that color anymore.

  
The last time I had ever looked into a mirror, my body was like a ghost's. Not invisible, but plainly see through. I could clearly view the towel rack that had been behind my back and the small painting through the corner of my head. But when I viewed where my eyes were supposed to be, my irises were gone. The once lovely hazel tone seemed to have worn off. I would never see it again, no matter if anyone else could. The only feature I had ever liked about my body was gone.

  
That night in my old bathroom, I had cried over my appearance for the first time as a vampire. Already hideous, I didn't like myself at all anymore. And it wasn't like I had any people to comfort me. Frank used to be that person. He was the only person who had treated me and my body like a national treasure.

  
“You don't have to be skinny to be beautiful Gee,” he used to tell me, “You already are… You're perfect to me, and I love you so much.”

  
Whether or not his words were a lie, I don't know anymore. It wasn't like he was here to tell me.


	3. Chapter 3

My view on vampires is simple.

  
We're not entirely superhuman or as bloodthirsty as society believes… Well, at least I'm not. I don't exactly know about Frank or anyone else.

  
I can turn into a bat, which I find slightly cool, though sort of useless as a whole. I can also see very well in that dark, but I don't need that. I also don't just drink blood (not that I have yet at all, actually) but I can still eat human food. Every once in a short while I feel the urge to eat something with a heartbeat, and every once in a short while I isolate myself in my basement with multiple pounds of uncooked, store bought meat. I can't even bring myself to kill a single animal, and it doesn't help that I wanted to be a vegetarian before I was turned into a blood lusting beast.

  
I still look the same as when I had been nineteen. I don't think I have blood anymore… I checked. I still seem to breathe, but my chest doesn't rise and fall like it used to. I don't even have a heartbeat anymore.

  
But despite it all, I can still feel fear like I do now.

  
My cold body shook as I stared into the alleyway. There were two silhouettes; a tall man and a short woman in the dim glow of the streetlight on the other side of the lane where they stood. The woman was still screaming. I could suddenly tell they were words.

  
“GET OFF OF ME!”

  
“WHERE IS HE?!”

  
“SCREW YOU BREN- I DON'T FREAKING KNOW, ALRIGHT? WHOEVER-”

  
“JAMIA PLEASE, IF YOU-”

  
“SOMEBODY HELP!”

  
I drew in a sharp breath, running forward as the man got closer to the woman, and without a doubt, slapping her solidly in the face. If my blood wasn't there before, it was now, and it was boiling.

  
I clenched my fists hurriedly and threw them at the man when I approached as quick as I could, the woman that was now behind me gasping as my fist collided with his face rather pitifully, but with just enough force that he was stumbling backwards.

  
“Stay away from her!” I said with a surprisingly strong voice. The man looked… Confused. I almost raised an eyebrow, but he was standing tall now.

  
“Who the hell are you?” hHe asked with a tougher sounding voice than my own.

  
I gulped almost audibly, and if I were still alive, I probably would've been having a full blown panic attack. My eyes caught sight of a knife holster on the man’s waist, and immediately I sharply drew in another shaking breath.

  
I could feel the woman pulling my wrist, looking intently into my eyes when my body spun towards her. I could see the man staring at my neck from the corner of my eye, but I ignored it as the woman opened her mouth to speak.

  
“O-open your mouth.”

  
“Wh-”

  
“Do it.”

  
Fear pooling in my stomach, I clenched my fists a second time, my mouth widening open. The woman suddenly gasped just as it hit me. I know what she saw.  
Suddenly the man was grabbing my jaw hard, snapping me from my thoughts as his other hand was pressing into the flesh just behind my collarbone… My pressure point.

  
I wriggled, but his grip was strong. _A bat. You need to Change… Turn into a bat you fool_!

  
Shutting my eyes and willing it to be so, I stop wriggling and gasped as something completely different happened.

  
A hot, searing pain shot through my limbs, forcing me to fall to my knees and scream. My body didn't change. The man pressed harder onto my pressure point and I suddenly realized.

  
I can't Change when he does that. And with the smirk on the man's face as I pulled a confused but pained face, I knew he had already known.

Growling low in my throat, I shoved past the pain for a split second, pulling my jaw from his grip and baring my teeth.  
But he only bared his own back, and I could immediately sense that I probably looked crestfallen at that moment.

  
I suddenly felt the familiar tug of the woman's hand, her face facing mine closely. I gulped. Was she a vampire too?

  
“Bren- l-let him go. Please. We… We could use his help.”

  
I stared.

  
What had I gotten myself into?


	4. Chapter 4

After some coaxing, they had let me retrieve my backpack and even went up to the owner of the inn for my money back. I was hesitant at first, immediately knowing what that meant, but they didn't take no for an answer.

They had a long talk, all of it ending with me confused as they hugged like good friends.

Afterwards, we left the inn immediately, walking into Central Park with the moon as our flashlight.

  
Following close behind, I walked with the two, too scared of ‘Bren’ to speak or ask questions anymore. The woman turned her head around and shyly smiled; my hopes raised slightly.

  
“What's your name?” She asked softly; I realized I was shaking and blushed in embarrassment.

  
“Gerard…” I replied whilst smoothing both hands over my cold arms in search of some warmth, “W-where are we going? And who a-are you?”

  
The woman sighed and passed Bren a side glance, which he quickly returned with a curt nod.  
“My name's Jamia. Jamia Nestor,” the woman answered, then pointing to Bren, “And this is Brendon… We need your help, and we are more than willing to pay or return a favor for you afterwards.”  
To be honest, I was listening with all ears already. Maybe… Just maybe, they could take me to Frank.

  
“What kind of help?” I asked, trying to sound hesitant.

  
“Big help.” Brendon suddenly cut in, not bothering to look at me when he spoke, “We're trying to find someone. And it involves more of… Us.”

  
“U-us?”

  
“Vampires, Gerald. Well, one vampire, but a vampire nonetheless.”

  
I blushed in embarrassment, a shiver of fear causing goosebumps to show themselves on my skin.

  
“M-my name is Gerard.”

  
“Sorry… Also sorry about earlier. But never punch me again.”

  
I nodded, sensing he was looking at me from the corner of his eye. And when he smiled softly, I knew he had been.

  
“So are you up for it?” Jamia asked carefully, looking back at me with a hopeful glint in her gaze.

  
I already knew my answer.

  
“Yeah… Yeah, I am.”


End file.
